This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising.
By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies described in our Cookies Policy.
You may change your settings at any time but this may impact on the functionality of the site.
To learn more see our Cookies Policy.

Unlikely to reach a deal anytime soon, the Northern Ireland Assembly has remained empty since January.

SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Gerry Adams has said there will be no re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly without a stand-alone Irish Language Act.

Speaking this morning, Adams that there will be “no Assembly and no Executive without a stand-alone Irish Language Act”.

The proposed Irish Language Act is something Sinn Féin is adamant on pushing through, and an issue that has halted an agreement between the party and the DUP.

As outlined here, the DUP had begun to roll back on certain funding commitments to Irish language projects under the last Assembly, and this was heavily fought by Sinn Féin.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Adams said: “Do we harp back to the old days in the North where one party comes to the Assembly and say ‘sin é’ – that’s it – and they’re in charge? Or do we develop, as the Good Friday Agreement envisages, a society in which everyone’s rights are upheld and protected? That’s the crossroads that the leadership of Unionism is at.”

The legislation proposes protection of Irish as a minority language, and to give it a similar standing that the Welsh language has in Wales.

It proposes giving the Irish language an official status, enables public bodies to provide a baseline level of interactions in Irish, and legislates for Irish place names on road signs.

Sinn Féin has made it clear that, unless the DUP follow through and agree with the proposed legislation, there will be no agreement, and the Stormont Parliament will remain closed, as it has since January.

“The North is changing. It must be a place which embraces all of its citizens and respect all on the basis of equality. This does not threaten anyone,” Adams said in a statement this morning.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, he had even stronger words of criticism.

“Even this morning, talking to young people… the first language used to me was Irish.

These kids, I told the DUP this four or five years ago, are going to be radicalised and politicised by the DUP’s refusal to embrace their rights.

“These young people, if they had politics at all, it was just politics of identity, of Gaelic games, of sport, of song and of culture. Now, given the occurrences over the last year when they were dismissed… look at the big crowds that came out for the big Dearg Le Fearg march in Belfast.

Do we want a future in which there’s respect, in which there is tolerance, in which there is a legislative basis for everyone’s rights, or do we want to continue with the stand-off with the DUP where they put themselves on top?

Adams was questioned a number of times during the interview about what he meant when he said “radicalised”, however he failed to give a clear explanation.

The DUP wants to change the Irish Language Act as it currently exists and expand it to a more wider ranging piece of legislation that would include protection for not just Irish language speakers, but Scottish Gaelic speakers and other Protestant cultures in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this summer, the DUP rebuked the Irish government for trying to interfere in the matter, with MLA Christopher Stalford accusing the government of “undermining its own credibility” by supporting Sinn Féin’s stance on the Irish language.

Arlene Foster has also alluded to the act being a particular stumbling block.

She said: “It’s a case of making sure that those who we represent also feel valued in Northern Ireland.

What we can’t have is one section of the community having cultural supremacy over the other.

TheJournal.ie is a full participating member of the Press Council of Ireland and supports
the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme in addition to defending the freedom of the
press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may
have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the
Press Ombudsman Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or go to
www.pressombudsman.ie
or www.presscouncil.ie

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.